Beth Granger (@beg9040)

Beth Granger is a social media, social selling, and LinkedIn consultant, trainer, and speaker. Beth works with organizations and individuals who want to find prospects, book meetings, and build their professional brand using social media. She loves helping people who are not comfortable with technology to embrace its power.

Beth is the Long Island host of #LinkedInLocal, and is on the board of the Social Media Association.

Some people still think of LinkedIn as a place to go only if you are looking for a job, but it is so much more than that. Even people who are active may not realize the power it holds to extend your networking, find and engage in communities, and build your professional brand. If someone does a Google search for your name your LinkedIn profile is likely to be in the first three results.

Use all the appropriate real estate LinkedIn gives you to control your professional brand.

Background Graphic

Do you have a background graphic? This is the rectangle
behind your headshot.

Think of it as your personal billboard. It can have photos,
graphics, and text. Note: Text in the graphic won’t be clickable.

Be sure not to put anything on the bottom left where your
headshot will overlap the graphic. On mobile it may overlap on the bottom left
or bottom middle.

If you work for yourself, the graphic should match your
other branding. If you work for an organization, they may have graphics you can
use, or you can develop one that represents your role.

Specifications:

JPG, GIF, or PNG

Less than 8MB in size

Recommended size: 1584 x 396 pixels

Attach media on your
profile

You can attach files or link to files right from your
profile as part of your About section or as part of your role description. That
way, when someone checks you out on LinkedIn they will see examples.

Caution: You must have rights to anything you
post, including PDFs, photos, or videos.

Types of content to use:

PDFs – Your organization may have PDFs that you want to share or you can create documents for yourself.

Videos – Link to videos on YouTube, Vimeo, or other approved sources.

Images – PNG, TIFF, JPG, GIF (first frame only) – Do you have a photo of you speaking, running an event, or anything else that shows you doing what you do?

Do use all the fields that make sense for you. You can add
new sections by clicking on the Add profile section button towards the top of
your profile.

Do you have an About section? It helps you expand on your
headline, clarify anything confusing such as having two jobs at the same time
or an unusual career path. I describe
your headline as your 120-character elevator pitch and your About as what you
say when someone hears your pith and says, “Tell me more.”

Do you have patents, licenses, or certifications? There are
sections for that. This may not apply to you, but may to your colleagues at a
healthcare organization.

Have you worked on any special projects? There is a section
for that where you can even tag the other members of the team.

Do you speak multiple languages? Be sure to include it.

Volunteer experience? It presents you as a charitable and more well-rounded individual.

I wouldn’t advise using the Test Scores option unless you
just graduated.

Post content that gets seen

Sharing content allows you to keep in front of your network
and through their engagement be introduced to people outside of it. Consider
using a mix of types of content:

Video is an amazing way to share your ideas. It doesn’t have to be you speaking to the screen if you are uncomfortable with that. It can be your voice narrating. Use captions if you can since many people scroll through with their sound off.

Text. Original content is the most powerful type of post. Share what you are up to, what you think about, and information of value. Mention (tag) appropriate people and it may increase engagement and views.

PDFs are a newer type of content for LinkedIn. They take up a nice amount of space and therefore stand out. If they have multiple pages it is easy to click through. They also are downloadable.

Images can help your content stand out on LinkedIn. Infographics can be especially effective in communicating in this business-oriented platform.

Links. Share links to your company page or your employer’s company page. Links that take someone off the LinkedIn platform will get fewer views, but can still be worthwhile to share. Is there an article you read that your network would find valuable? Share it with text saying why you find it interesting.

Don’t forget to use hashtags on your posts to make them more findable. I recommend using no more than three at a time.

LinkedIn gives you a lot of real estate. Use your profile,
business page, and posts to control your professional brand image.

Beth Granger is a social media, social selling, and LinkedIn trainer, coach, and speaker. She works with organizations and to help them using social media, typically LinkedIn, to extend their networking, add more prospects, and build their professional brand. Before starting her own consulting firm Beth was the Director of Online Marketing and Design at Pall Corporation. Visit Beth on her favorite platform.

Yes, I'm curious about the multiple posts. Some people might find that too many, while others may not even see one of them. @gomidesdouglas Have you noticed anything interesting about a change in number of views or comments?

Good stuff, but LinkedIn changes so much that some of this is already different. Also, be aware that LinkedIn is one giant test case, and we are the subjects. You may notice a change and then it goes away. They also roll things out over time, so you may have a feature but your colleague might not.

Summary is now called About, and it’s important. I describe your headline as your 120 character elevator pitch and the about is what you say when someone asks you to tell them more. It can explain your history, your passion, etc.

Agreed! Plus, they just tested allowing group admins to invite people to follow the page, AND when you send a connection invite it now suggests you follow the company page. I think this will place more importance on Company Pages. Also, a company page can comment, as the page, on an employee's posts…